


As Equals

by aretia



Series: Pulchritudinous [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Getting Back Together, Ineffable Bureaucracy (Good Omens), Nonbinary Beelzebub (Good Omens), Other, Past Relationship(s), Ze/Zir Pronouns for Beelzebub (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23384824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Beelzebub and Gabriel meet up to discuss their plans for after the non-apocalypse, and reopen old wounds from before the fall.
Relationships: Beelzebub/Gabriel (Good Omens)
Series: Pulchritudinous [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683535
Comments: 15
Kudos: 45





	As Equals

**Author's Note:**

> This is a direct sequel to my first Good Omens fic, [Vanity.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19867924) I strongly recommend reading that one first, it's short!
> 
> The setting of the restaurant was inspired by a Tumblr post.

There was nowhere in Heaven or Hell where a demon and an angel could meet without drawing scrutiny. Earth was neutral ground. They had chosen for their meeting place one of those restaurants that was almost definitely a front for organized crime, because it somehow managed to stay in business despite never having any customers, except for the times when it was closed and full of serious-looking men in suits.

There weren’t any customers, as usual, when Beelzebub walked in. There weren’t any men in suits, either, although the Archangel Gabriel sitting at one of the booths could easily be mistaken for one. Beelzebub slid into the booth across from him, slouching back against the cushion.

Gabriel’s elbows were propped up on the table, his hands interlaced in a tightly clasped knot in front of his chin. “So,” he said, and then looked up at zir expectantly, as if he were asking Beelzebub to complete the statement.

“So,” Beelzebub echoed, with a sigh and a shrug of zir shoulders. “That was a disaster.”

“Not the kind of disaster we wanted, either,” Gabriel agreed.

“Did you ask me here so that we could sort out whose side is to blame?” Beelzebub asked.

“Obviously, yours is,” Gabriel said. Beelzebub opened zir mouth to argue, but before ze could get a word out, Gabriel continued, “But no, that’s not why I asked you here. I wanted to meet with you so that I could ask for your help.”

“Didn’t go so well the last time our sides collaborated, did it?” Beelzebub reminded him. Ze said it nonchalantly, but underneath the cool exterior, ze still shuddered with the memory. Crowley, splashing around in a bathtub full of holy water, as if he wielded the power to destroy them all, and it was only the mercy of his whim that held him back from unleashing it. Gabriel’s shoulders tensed, and by the looks of it, he was reliving a similar horror.

“I don’t mean like that,” Gabriel said, his voice clipped. “I’m not looking for a one-time trade. What I need is an alliance. With you.”

“Why would you want that?” Beelzebub said flatly.

“You know as well as I do that this is all bound to come crashing down around our ears at any moment,” he said. “I need your protection, just in case…” he pointed upward with a trembling finger, “...the higher authorities decide they need someone to take the fall for this.”

Beelzebub couldn’t contain a derisive snort. “You have got to be kidding me,” ze said. “You’re asking for my protection in case you fall?” 

Gabriel nodded, his throat twitching as he gulped. “Please. It was hard enough for me to accept that I needed your help. Please, just say you’ll do it. Maybe there’s something I can offer you in return.”

“And what, exactly, do you think puts you in a position to negotiate with me?” Beelzebub demanded.

“Well, for instance, as long as I still have power in Heaven, I can use it to get you anything you want that you can’t get from your side,” Gabriel offered.

“Your power is meaningless to me,” Beelzebub said, relishing the way that made Gabriel squirm. “You think that just because we’re both leaders now, that means we’re equals. But your power in Heaven was handed to you. You were created for it. You didn’t have to scrape and claw your way through thousands of demons to get it like I did. Your power is not earned, and it’s no match for the power that I hold.” 

“Why are you bringing that up now?” Gabriel asked. Beelzebub enjoyed watching him flounder, and like a cat that had caught a mouse, ze would much rather continue to tear him to shreds before dropping the final _no_ that would mercifully snap his neck.

“You aren’t even asking for protection, not really. You aren’t just asking me to make sure that you have a cushy cell when you face eternal damnation.” Beelzebub huffed a laugh to zirself at zir own joke, at the idea that Hell had any cushy cells. “You’re asking for a share of my power. You want to stroke your own ego while you make big, important decisions that mean absolutely nothing, just like you do now. Well, I’m here to tell you that until you do something to earn that power, there’s only enough room on my throne for one.” Beelzebub crossed zir arms, leaned back against the booth, and spread zir legs wide, taking up as much space as zir small corporation could.

Ze watched Gabriel’s throat bob silently as he tried to find the words to reply. “So that’s a no, then?” he said, sounding defeated. For some reason, Beelzebub didn’t derive as much satisfaction from that as ze thought ze would. Ze had expected him to have more fight in him.

“Can I get you anything?” asked the perky waitress who had decided to sidle up to their table, after spending the first ten minutes since they walked in ignoring them.

Beelzebub ordered a crème brûlée. Being a fly demon, ze had always had an affinity for sweet things. Gabriel didn’t order anything, which was what ze had expected. He declined when the waitress offered him water, which left her looking somewhat dejected.

“You could have at least accepted the water,” Beelzebub muttered.

“I do not sully the temple of my celestial body with gross matter,” Gabriel said rotely, as if he were reciting a mission statement.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Beelzebub said, waving a hand dismissively. “You don’t have to drink it. Just to be polite.”

“You’re lecturing me on politeness now?” Gabriel retorted. “Unbelievable.”

The waitress’s interruption had derailed their conversation, and they sat there for a few minutes, staring each other down. Beelzebub felt zir skin crawl from the way Gabriel’s eyes raked over zir body. Gabriel was the first to break the silence.

“You look good, by the way.”

If Beelzebub had been drinking water at that moment, ze would have snorted it out zir nose. “What?” ze sputtered. “Who do you think you are to comment on my appearance?”

“Er, I just meant your whole, uh…” He gestured vaguely to Beelzebub’s form in a way that did not make it even the slightest bit clearer what he was talking about. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.” 

Even though a part of Beelzebub felt repulsed that Gabriel was looking at zir that way, a deeper part of zir felt satisfied that it had worked. Ze put a lot of effort into zir appearance, but ze didn’t dress _for_ Gabriel. Ze dressed to look intimidating, and powerful, and most of all, unattainable. It felt like a small victory to know that it had an effect on him.

Gabriel hurried to change the subject. “It’s not like I want to fall. I’m going to do everything I can to keep that from happening. I’m just trying to make a contingency plan in case it does happen,” he said. “I’m not like you. You wanted to fall.”

“Excuse me? I wanted to fall?” Beelzebub repeated incredulously. “Is that what you think? No one wanted to fall.”

“Well, I suppose not,” Gabriel conceded. “But if there was anyone who walked right up to the edge and jumped, it was you. I saw you standing there by Lucifer’s side right before the start of the great battle.”

“And what about it?” said Beelzebub. “You already knew where I stood.”

“No, I didn’t. I thought you stood with me,” he said, and there it was. He had broken open the dam holding back the repressed memories that they had both been dancing around, and now there was no stopping the flood. “When the battle was about to begin, I searched everywhere for you. I wanted to protect you. Do you have any idea how betrayed I felt when I saw you standing on the side of the enemy?”

It rankled, that he thought ze needed his protection. Of course Gabriel would be self-centered enough to think that ze would consider something so trivial as his feelings in the matter of the great war. 

The waitress set Beelzebub’s dessert down on the table, and then, with as much haste as she had appeared, she scurried back into the kitchen, suddenly in a bigger hurry than she had been to take their order. 

“Let me make something clear, Gabriel,” Beelzebub said, picking up a fork. It pierced the caramelized layer on top of the custard, shattering it into artfully cracked pieces. “I did not, and will never, need your protection.” Ze stabbed the fork in so deep that it split the dish in half, and scraped against the table underneath, but it didn’t faze Beelzebub. “And you don’t need mine. You’re the Almighty’s darling. You’re never going to fall. But in case you do, I’ll be waiting to make sure your life in Hell is as miserable as it can possibly be, because that’s what a selfish prick like you deserves.”

Ze speared a raspberry with the fork and shoved it into zir mouth, chewing it as if it was Gabriel’s head being crushed between zir teeth. By his wide-eyed, slack-jawed expression, ze could tell that he was imagining that, too. 

“Do you want to know why I rebelled?” Beelzebub said, zir voice dipping into the buzzing echo that emerged whenever zir emotions ran high. “You drove me to this, so it seems like I ought to tell you.”

“What? Me? What are you talking about?” Gabriel said. “You can’t just blame me for your bad choices.”

“My bad choices?” Beelzebub said, placing a hand over zir chest with melodramatic flair. “It seemed like you were the one who made choices you regretted, like dating a _commoner angel._ ” Those were his words, and they tasted bitter when spoken aloud. Beelzebub shoveled another scoop of custard into zir mouth to cover up the taste. “You would go around preaching that all love is holy, but then you would push me away, like I was a stain on your immaculate reputation. You wanted it all, but you didn’t consider me as a part of your plan. You only wanted me when I groveled at your feet.”

“I only did what was expected of someone of my station. Acknowledging a relationship like that was out of the question,” Gabriel said, raising his voice, his calm facade finally melting away in the steam of Beelzebub’s simmering rage. “I never knew that you cared so much about it.” 

Beelzebub flinched back. Ze had underestimated Gabriel. He had peeled back zir skin and exposed zir weak spot, then plunged a knife in and twisted it deep. Nothing could be more humiliating to Beelzebub than to be accused of caring.

“Don’t let it go to your head. This has very little to do with you,” Beelzebub lied. It had everything to do with him, but he was just the type to be proud of that, and ze didn’t want to give him that satisfaction. “You only made me realize how powerless I was in Heaven. I wanted power, same as many of the other angels who took part in the rebellion. I was just one of the only ones who actually got it.”

“So you got what you wanted,” said Gabriel. “Was it worth betraying all of us? Was it worth the pain of falling? Was it worth losing everything you had?”

Beelzebub, having finished the dessert, shoved the broken plate aside. Ze stood up and stalked over to Gabriel’s side of the table, leering down at him. “Sure, I lost some when I fell. But I gained so much more. I gained power. I gained my identity. I came into my own, and that made it worth everything I had sacrificed.” Beelzebub propped zir hand on the table and leaned a little closer, savoring the feeling of looming above Gabriel. “You lost something in the war, too.”

“No, I didn’t. Unlike you, I still have my grace,” said Gabriel, his body growing tense under zir stare. “What could I possibly have lost?”

“Me,” Beelzebub said. 

Ze brought zir jagged nail close to Gabriel’s face, and drew a scratch along his sculpted cheekbone. “That’s what all this is about, isn’t it? You don’t just want some stupid alliance. You want me back.”

Gabriel refused to meet zir gaze, and his mouth pulled tight in a hard line. Even without saying the words, his reaction was enough confirmation that Beelzebub was right.

“I knew it. Fucking angels, you think you’re entitled to everything.” Beelzebub straightened back up, withdrawing the contact, the closeness, and watched as Gabriel leaned forward into the space between them, chasing after it. “You think that we’re on equal ground now. You want me because you think I’m finally worthy of your greatness. But the truth is, you’re not even worth the dirt on the bottom of my shoe.” Beelzebub turned on zir heel and strode towards the door. “You pick up the tab, since this meeting was your idea anyway.”

“Beelzebub, wait!” Gabriel called out, standing up from the booth. Beelzebub stopped in front of the door and tilted zir head back over zir shoulder. 

“I’m…” His shoulders sagged, his posture one of surrender. “I’m sorry.”

“What?” Beelzebub said, turning around and taking a few steps closer.

“I’m sorry,” Gabriel repeated, firmer this time. His violet eyes didn’t shy away from meeting Beelzebub’s, and they shimmered with a sincerity that ze didn’t believe he was capable of. “I mean it. I was a hypocrite. You deserved better than that.”

Beelzebub approached him now, closing the distance between them, until ze invaded his personal space. “Say it again,” ze hissed.

“You didn’t hear me? I said I’m s—” This time, he didn’t get a chance to finish his apology, because Beelzebub grabbed that stupid scarf that he wore around his neck, yanked him down to zir eye level, and kissed him. It wasn’t a gentle kiss. It was hungry and desperate and bruising, an avalanche of pent-up emotion crashing down in one swift movement.

Gabriel’s hands came to rest upon Beelzebub’s waist, just above zir hips, digging into the scant flesh there and pulling them closer together so that Beelzebub’s chest was flush with his. Beelzebub’s hand moved up to cup the back of his head, fingers gripping the short hair at the nape of his neck, and he gasped when ze gave his hair a sharp tug. His mouth was open, willing, begging to be devoured. Beelzebub took his lower lip into zir mouth and dragged zir teeth against it, causing Gabriel to let out an obscene moan. 

It tasted nothing like Beelzebub’s memory of kissing him before the fall. Angels’ lips were as soft as clouds, but his cloud-like kisses had always drifted away too soon, brief touches that left zir unsatisfied. Beelzebub craved the groundedness of having a physical form, the power of coaxing those sounds out of him, the triumph of knowing that even after ze took zir fill, Gabriel would still want more. 

“Um, excuse me?” said the waitress, who had appeared behind Gabriel. He didn’t hesitate in plunging his tongue into Beelzebub’s mouth, showing no indication that he had noticed the waitress there at all. Beelzebub stuck out zir hand behind his back, in which ze had conjured an arbitrary amount of Earth money. “Oh my gosh, thank you!” she said, snatching up the cash and running out the door of the restaurant, and out of whatever rock-bottom situation in her life had led her to end up working there. Even though the habit disgusted zir, Beelzebub could be nice when ze was in a good enough mood, and wringing an apology out of Gabriel before kissing him senseless definitely put zir in a good mood. 

Gabriel broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against Beelzebub’s, their hot breath mingling in the space between them. Beelzebub looked up at him and said, “I’m giving you one more chance. Don’t waste it.”

“I won’t,” Gabriel said. The dopey grin that spread across his features almost made zir want to slap him, but ze decided that kissing it off his lips was a much more satisfying option.


End file.
